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The United States Army has "seven core values" that everyone from private through general are suppose to live by.
They are:
* Duty
* Loyalty
* Selfless Service
* Honor
* Courage
* Respect
* Integrity
Now even though I've been retired from active duty since January 1st 1993, I still live by these same values today. And if you ask me which one do I think is the most important, it would have to be integrity. Why?
Because it would best describe myself, "a person who lives by a set of moral codes and values."
Unfortunately there are some leaders today who also claim they live by these same values when they really don't.
But to me they're not leaders, they're just "stripe & bar wearers" with "pocket values."
Meaning they pull'em out and uphold'em only when they want and they put them away until they need them for another day.
An example of a leader with pocket values is someone who tells you "don't drink & drive, don't bounce checks, don't commit adultery, etc."
And then you find out later they got caught doing it. It falls in the same category as "double standards" and "don't do what I do, just do what I say."
Being once a senior NCO myself, I've known quite a few other NCOs who had only pocket values.
And I'm sorry to say, some of them made it to the top three enlisted ranks (E-7, E-8 & E-9) via their "social drinking & butt kissing" skills.
But what's interesting, is while these (so call) leaders are busy downing some drinks and sucking up to their chain of command at the base club or somewhere
else, the troops they're suppose to lead know what kind of leaders they are.
Unfortunately, there's nothing they can really do about it but hope they never have to serve under them again in the future.
A few years ago I accepted a job with a company responsible for training the Bosnian Muslim Army under the US State Department approved "Train & Equip Program."
And basically what this company does is train "foreign armies" who are friendly towards the United States and it's allies.
Because they hire mostly former or retired "senior NCOs & officers" who were once Army Rangers, Special Forces, Drill Instructors and or leaders who had exceptional teaching, training and leadership
skills, you would think they would all have high standards, morals and live by these same seven core values today, wouldn't you?
And yes, the majority of them did, but there were a few who "fell through the cracks" that had only pocket values.
Now because we were making big bucks and wanted to hold onto our jobs as long as possible, some were willing to "sell their integrity" and "bark & wag their tails" whenever their chain was pulled on.
And if we were having training problems or even personal problems, the senior leaders in the company would cover it up and tell the boss, "Everything's going fine, moral is high!" (Sound familiar?)
For example:
One time a fellow instructor (a retired Msg/E-8) received a very disturbing "racial drawing" of himself from an unknown (but obvious) fellow co-worker.
He was extremely upset and wanted to take matters into his own hands, if you know what I
mean...
Well instead of the company doing an investigation to find out who did it and then firing that person, his supervisors offered him (and he accepted) a transfer to another team.
But by accepting the transfer and not pushing for an investigation, he only contributed to helping his supervisors "cover up" and downplay the incident and nothing ever happening to the "racial cartoonist."
Another time about a hundred Bosnian NCOs and officers were given a two day class on how to call in artillery fire, and during the testing phase I was tasked to evaluate them.
But because none of them could call in artillery fire by our (US Army) training standards, I had no choice but to fail all of them and recommend retraining.
My supervisor (a retired Major/0-4) was worried about our boss (a retired Ltc/0-5) getting upset when he saw how many Bosnians failed the test.
And so he asked me to grade them on "a curve" so it wouldn't look so bad on his report.
And I blew my stack and told him, "No way, either they can do it or they can't, how would you like one of these guys to call in a fire mission for your unit?"
He says " Well no, not really but..." And I told him "Forget it! I'm not passing any of them."
And then a couple of days later I find out he told his supervisor that it was "my fault" they all failed and I was not being very cooperative on training matters.
Another time we spent several weeks training a Bosnian infantry battalion on how to fire and maneuver, which we were supposed to teach it by the book.
First you teach them how to fire and maneuver as a buddy team, fire team,
squad and then by platoon. But while I was away on leave our boss (a retired Ltc/0-5) instructed my fellow co-workers to skip the squad level.
And when I came back from leave I was again tasked to evaluate the unit on platoon level fire and maneuver.
But they couldn't even do it as squads, and then later I found out why.
Well, when we had a meeting that day to discuss training, the boss says, "Well, I guess maybe we should have taught them squad level fire & maneuver before progressing to platoon level."
And I jumped on him and said, "Gee, no kidding Sherlock..."
And then a few days later I find out he told his boss I wasn't properly training the Bosnian unit when it wasn't even one of my assigned classes, I was just the evaluator, "not the trainer."
But what really upset me is when one of my fellow co-workers (a retired Csm/E-9) came up to me and said,
"Rick, I gotta hand it to you buddy you got a pair. And if I didn't need this job, I'd be right there beside you telling them how screwed up they are.
But because I need the cash, if they want me to teach something differently even though I know it's wrong, I'm just going to do what they tell me to do."
And this my friends is an example of leaders with "pocket values."
They pull'em out and uphold'em only when they want and then put'em away until they need them for another day.
The moral of the story? If you think you don't have any
"pocket values" rangers in your unit or work place,
then look again. I guarantee they're around.
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